For those not in the know, judicial races in NC have been non-partisan for a pretty long time. Recently the legislature decided to change this.

They didn't finish their tweaking of election rules/districts/etc. until too late to hold primaries. As a result in one state Supreme Court race there are 2 Republicans (including the incumbent) against one Democrat. Until recently the second Republican was a registered Democrat. After he filed the legislature tried to change the rules further by saying you can't have the "R" after your name if you haven't been one for at least a certain period of time (I heard 6 months). That didn't fly. There are no runoffs- the leading vote getter wins even if he or she receives less than 50% of the votes.

In a District Court race an incumbent Democrat filed at the last minute for a different seat- where she will face 2 Republicans- rather than filing for her own seat where she would have only faced one Republican. Her district had been changed so that her home county is now joined with a larger, more Republican county.

I wonder what party slot WFMY stuck me in. I have been unaffiliated for many years now, because I strongly believe it should make no difference what party a judge is in, and "unaffiliated" makes a statement that judges must be neutral and impartial in their outlook and decisions. The legislature, in eliminating the judicial primaries, also had to allow candidates to run as unaffiliated without having to get 5% of the registered voters in the district to sign a petition.

This was my last election. I can retire midway through my eight year term, having had the good fortune never to have been forced to raise money, put up yard signs, or grovel for votes.

Thanks to all my DCats friends for the good wishes and congratulatory beers at the Brickhouse. I discovered, after the Dartmouth game, that my money was no good there._________________“Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.” — Jeff Bridges as The Dude in "The Big Lebowski"